What Lies Beyond the Garden Fence
by Slytherinsnitches
Summary: The Malfoy family is powerful. Extremely powerful. And very rich. They have been for centuries, and their family name is known to everyone. And none of them have ever married outside of their pure Sacred Twenty-Eight. None of them had ever even thought about it, until young Draco caught the flowery scent of Hermione Granger's skin. But can he over come his family prejudice?
1. Prologue

What Lies Beyond The Garden Fence

Prologue:

The old house with its wildly overgrown garden was silent, secretive, and ominous. It lay in considerable ruins for the way it had looked. The lawn gave the illusion of once being neatly manicured, but the shrubbery that spiraled high into the air and in various shapes was long since abandoned to the wild nature of the English countryside. The once green lawns were a lusterless brown, and their length swayed in the light fall breeze. The tall windows were cracked and dirty, some with entire panes missing. It was a sad sight.

The elegant maple doors creaked on their hinges when Septimus II pushed them open. Leaves scattered the marble floors, water dripped through a hole in the ceiling, and broken pieces of an irreplaceable chandelier crunched under his feet. He lit his wand with a silent "lumos" and scanned the room, his eyes falling on a chest of drawers to the side of the grand staircase. He pulled one of the drawers open slowly, as the dresser was very old and falling apart. A small velvet box was situated in the very center of the drawer, and Septimus was unable to lift it. Someone had attached it with a permanent sticking charm. When he lifted the lid, however, the contents within were very easily removed. A small ring bearing serpentine creatures glistening in green, black, and silver with the words "Sanctimonia Vincet Sempur" lay on a cushion of the same velvet that the box was made of. Septimus slipped it on his finger and flexed his hand, feeling the power of his pure blood roaring back through his veins.

War had almost destroyed his family. War had almost destroyed him. And he vowed then and there that nothing would tear apart his family ever again, not as long as his heir wore that ring on his finger and called himself Malfoy.

He turned, flicking his wand, and the debris around him disappeared. The bits of chandelier under his feet flew up into the air and reattached themselves to the iron frame hanging from the ceiling. The panes of glass reformed and cleaned themselves, the dripping stopped. The spell went around the property like a shockwave. The small pond was cleared of scum and litter, the grass turned green and seemed to recede into the ground, and the shrubs shrank and formed into their former glorious shapes, and the fence surrounding the property straightened itself. A dim golden light emitted from the windows.

Septimus closed his eyes and smiled. The Malfoys were back, and stronger than before. He thought, if he strained his ears, he could make out the faint sound of his father berating a house elf for undercooking his fish, and his mother chatting away with her best friend Lucrecia Avery while they sipped tea and nibbled on scones. He could smell the savory four-course meals he was served almost every day, and he could nearly feel his father's guiding hand on his shoulder.

But then he heard a small scurrying, and the illusion was broken. He opened his eyes, the light leaving them instantly, and he remembered that his family was dead. He would never hear his mother and father laughing again. He would never taste his favourite house elf's cooking again. He would never feel an ounce of love or comfort from the rotting corpses buried on a cliff by the sea.

He needed to rebuild. He needed to restore the Malfoy name to its former glory and even more so. He needed that name to incite fear and jealousy in the ones beneath him. He needed everyone to know that he was to be revered. That he and his family could squash you in relative ease. That he was powerful, and he wasn't afraid to wield it for his personal gain and protection.

He needed all of that and more. But first things first: he needed a new family.


	2. Chapter 1

What Lies Beyond the Garden Fence

Chapter One:

Draco peeked out from behind the curtains of his father's office and squealed "boo!". His father looked down at him and smiled coldly.

"Not now, I have work to do."

Draco skipped out from his hiding place and plopped down on the carpet, wiggling his pale toes and brushing his long platinum bangs out of his steely grey eyes.

"Like what?" He asked, looking up at Lucius in wonder.

His father flipped through a large, black, leather-bound book that lay on his neat desk. "Ministry business" he stated, dipping his quill in a pot of ink and writing something down carefully on a sheet of parchment.

"Like what?" Draco repeated, laying back and putting his head on his dog.

Lucius sighed, setting down his quill rather forcefully and turning to face his son.

"Important business that you will not understand until you are much older, and possibly, at the rate you're going, not ever. So please, Draco, leave me in peace." He walked over to the door and opened it, gesturing for Draco to leave.

He did so, sniffling, and padded up the grand staircase to his bedroom. It was a large room with an ensuite bathroom and three tall windows with a balcony opening up to the extensive backyard. The walls were painted a deep emerald and the floor-to-ceiling curtains were silver. He had a king sized bed with black satin sheets and as many pillows as he could ask for. His walls were lined with ornately carved bookcases that he had yet to fill, and a small desk sat in front of one of his windows. In the bathroom he had a large tub that, to his enormous pleasure, was big enough for him to swim in.

He locked his bedroom door to make sure his mum wouldn't come wandering in (not that she would, but you never know) and opened his glass doors to the balcony. He had learned early on, when he was six or seven, that he could easily lower himself over the size and drop into a bush that lay directly below his room. He did this now, but not before grabbing a towel.

Ten minutes later he was nearly to the edge of his property. He had cut through the hedge maze to the very center where there was a small pond. It was a warm summer night, and Draco undressed, folding his clothes neatly, before stepping into the cool water.

He swam out to the middle of the pond, giggling quietly as he felt the small fish nibble at his toes. He hummed a classical piece that he had heard when he attended a ball at the Greengrass manor. The milky way above him glittered, and he smiled to himself. Draco liked to be alone outside. He liked to be away from his family, his nagging mother and his father, whom he could never seem to please. He liked the silence, the room to think and breather. The fresh air helped him clear his head. He had a surprising amount to think about, for a nine year old.

He heard a rustling behind him, and turned, treading water. One of the hedges was moving! Draco called out into the darkness "Hello?" and began to swam toward the shore.

He stepped out toward the hedge, his feet sinking in the squishy mud, and stopped as a small figure emerged. It was a girl about his age with a mane of bushy brown hair and a rip in her t-shirt.

"Who are you?"

She jumped, tripping over a rock and falling.

"Ow." She yelped, clutching her knee.

"Are you alright?"

"I think so, I scraped my knee."

"You're bleeding."

"I think I'm okay."

"We should get you a plaster."

She looked wary. "I don't know you. This isn't the Forrest of Dean, is it?"

"No, this is the Malfoy Manor. I'm Draco Malfoy. Who are you?"

"Hermione Granger. I was camping with my parents, have you seen them?"

"No, I was just swimming. There hasn't been anyone here. How did you get in, anyways? There's a fence."

"Get in? I was walking away from the campsite to go to the restroom and I fell into a hedge. When I came out, I was here."

Draco's eyes went wide. "You must have apparated. How'd you do that?"

Hermione looked at him, confusedly. "What is apparated?"

"Apparation? Aren't you a witch?"

"A witch? Like in fairy stories?"

Draco squirmed, wrapping his towel around his shoulders. "If you're not a witch, you must be a muggle."

"What's a muggle? Are you mental or something?"

He frowned. "No, of course not. I just mean you must not have magic blood. What do your parents do?"

"They're dentists."

"What's a dentist?"

"You are mental!"

"No, I'm not. I'm serious. What's a dentist?"

"They clean people's teeth."

"That sounds horrible."

"Not really."

"You're still bleeding, you know."

"I think it stopped."

"I think we should clean it and get you a plaster, though."

"Okay. Where's your house?"

He nodded in the general direction of the manor. "Other side of the hedge-maze. "

She began walking in that direction, bearing most of her weight on her left leg. They walked back to the manor in silence, and he helped show her how to climb the stones in the wall to get up to the balcony. She almost fell, but he caught her and boosted her up the rest of the way.

He took her into his bathroom and cleaned off her knee with a cloth. She winced.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

She was brace, he had to admit that. He also thought she smelled faintly of lavender. It was nice. Soft and sweet, like she seemed to be.

"I still don't know how I got here."

"Neither do I. And I don't know how to get you back." He put the plaster over the scrape on her knee, went into the bedroom, and sat down on the edge of his bed.

"I think we might have to talk to my father."

"Is that a problem?"

"Well, if you're a muggle, yes. He doesn't like muggles."

"I need to go home."

Draco sighed uneasily. "It's not like you can live here. And I don't know how to get you home. And I can't just throw you out… so I guess we'll have to. He's probably in his library."

Her eyes lit up a little. "Library?"

"Yes, come on."

He grabbed his hand and pulled her into the corridor and down the staircase to the library. He knocked, timidly.

His father's voice came from within. "Enter."

Draco pushed open the door, stepped inside, and pulled Hermione in with him.

His father looked up from his desk. "Well, well. What do we have here?"


End file.
